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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (38661)	5/30/1999 11:03:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

what I was saying in my post is that for the mostly poor and unsophisticated soldiers in the ranks, I believe that they thought they were fighting about slavery. Is that true? I did understand that to be what you were saying. What I was saying is that I don't think that was particularly true, at least at the beginning of the war. But I am not a historian. I will gladly defer to a historian who has a good knowledge of the Civil War.

To: Grainne who wrote (38661)	5/31/1999 5:40:00 PM
From: nihil	Respond to of 108807

There are many books based on letters and diaries from the front. The Life of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank is a title that sticks in my mind. I think you will be surprised when you read some of this correspondence. Soldiers become politically quite sophisticated when they are subjected to stupid and cowardly leadership -- McClellan, Burnsides, Hooker, and the like. Much of the pressure on Lincoln to find a general came from soldiers at the front writing their families back home who put pressure on politicians and then on Lincoln. Many were idealists. The sophisticates like Henry Adams, James, and the like hired substitutes. Heroes like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. knew very well what they were fighting for.